Spirit Airlines Assault

Spirit Airlines Assault

12/14/18 UPDATE:A judge yesterday sentenced Ramamoorthy to nine years in prison for sexually assaulting a female passenger on a January 3 flight from Las Vegas to Detroit. Ramamoorthy, an Indian citizen who came to the U.S. on a work visa in 2015, will be deported to his home country upon his release from federal custody.

8/17/18 UPDATE:A federal jury yesterday convicted Ramamoorthy, now 35, of sexually assaulting a female passenger on a Spirit Airlines plane bound for Detroit. Ramamoorthy, who remains in federal custody, faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced on December 12. Ramamoorthy, an Indian citizen, will be deported upon completion of any custodial sentence.

According to the FBI, the 22-year-old victim was traveling Wednesday morning on a Spirit Airlines flight when she dozed off in her window seat. “She woke up to a hand in her pants and noticed that her pants and shirt were unbuttoned,” reported Agent Kyle Dodge.

The woman, Dodge reported, said that the male passenger next to her “was shoving his fingers inside her vagina and vigorously moving them. When she fully woke up, the man stopped.”

The victim immediately reported the attack to flight attendants, who later told federal agents that she was “visibly upset and was crying.”

Upon landing, suspect Prabhu Ramamoorthy, a 34-year-old Indian citizen, was taken into custody.

Ramamoorthy, who is living in the U.S. on a temporary visa, was seated in a middle seat, while his wife was by his side in an aisle seat. Seen above, Ramamoorthy works as a project manager for a technology firm.

After initially providing a written statement in which he denied doing anything to the woman, Ramamoorthy told agents he “might have” undone the victim’s bra “while playing with it” and that he “cupped her breast over her clothes.”

Ramamoorthy, Agent Dodge reported, “indicated that he unzipped her pants part-way” and “put his finger into her pants.” While acknowledging that he tried to digitally penetrate the sleeping woman, Ramamoorthy claimed that his attempt was unsuccessful.

Charged with aggravated sexual abuse, Ramamoorthy was booked into the Wayne County jail, where he remains locked up in advance of a detention hearing scheduled for this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Detroit. (4 pages)